ETH Shenzhen is an Ethereum Developer Conference and Hackathon event aimed at connecting, inspiring, and educating developers from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and beyond, while also fostering connections with the SEA community.

embarking on Ethereum’s next decade

Many have said, “Ethereum is dead,” but in the summer of 2024, Ethereum’s tenth anniversary has arrived as expected. Over the past decade, ETH/BTC has increased by more than 100 times, and the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF has been approved for listing. In the crypto world, apart from Bitcoin, nothing has shown more vitality than Ethereum.

What truly makes Ethereum stand out is its global, largest, and most active developer community. From the Ethereum Foundation’s largest developer conference Devcon, to the global hackathon series ETHGlobal, to numerous regional conferences and hackathons worldwide, the enthusiasm for Ethereum remains as hot as an eternal summer. To further support the decentralization of the Ethereum community, connect, inspire, and educate Ethereum developers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and other regions, OpenBuild, Panta Rhei, and the Shenzhen University Blockchain Association will jointly host ETHShenzhen 2024 Summit and Hackathon from August 16th to 18th in Shenzhen.

This event is sponsored or supported by the Ethereum Foundation, Fuel Labs, Chainlink, Morph, SmartLayer, Vara Network, and Bifrost Grants. Guests from core projects such as the Ethereum Foundation, Nethermind, Fuel Labs, Starknet Foundation, EthStorage, Avail, Monad, and Artela will be invited to attend and share their insights.

Through the window to the world, embarking on the future of Ethereum

For an emerging industry like Web3, Shenzhen is undoubtedly a window to the world. With the support of Web3-friendly policies in Hong Kong, more and more developers are migrating to Shenzhen, making it the primary gathering place for domestic Web3 developers. Hosting an Ethereum Developer Conference in Shenzhen is thus very timely. Although Ethereum’s progress over the past year has not met the market’s high expectations of massive adoption, over the past decade, it has introduced pioneering concepts like PoS consensus mechanism, smart contracts, DeFi, NFT, and DAO. Today, most major public chain ecosystems are following Ethereum’s lead, and those aiming to be “Ethereum killers” have not surpassed Ethereum, which remains the preferred blockchain for crypto developers. In this regard, Ethereum has “always been chased, but never surpassed.”

In fact, Ethereum has been making significant progress by addressing the “blockchain trilemma” of balancing decentralization, efficiency, and security. Ethereum has excelled in this balance, as evidenced by the development of L2 solutions, modular blockchains, and parallel EVMs.

In response to this, ETHShenzhen has invited key figures from various Ethereum-related projects, including Leo Lara and Jernkun from the PSE ZK team, EIP Editor Victor Zhou, Rebort Kodra from the Starknet Foundation, Harry from Fuel Labs, Tianyu from Nethermind, Sungmo from Monad, and Chen Xinran from Reddio, as well as representatives from Morph and Artela. These guests, covering the Ethereum Foundation, core ecosystem projects, and renowned EVM projects, will share their insights on Ethereum, consensus algorithms, modularity, scaling, and parallel EVMs.

Moreover, with the advancement of EigenLayer shared security, Restaking is seen as the liquidity cornerstone of the next generation of DeFi. To discuss the future of Restaking in Ethereum and DeFi, ETHShenzhen will invite VCs and project leaders from IOSG, Puffer, Bifrost, and others for in-depth discussions. Not only that, but we also believe that the cypherpunk spirit is the cornerstone of Ethereum’s continued advancement. As Vitalik said, “Our goal is not just to create isolated tools and games, but to build a more free and open society and economy.” Therefore, this ETHShenzhen will also explore two “holy grails” of cryptography: ZK and FHE.

First, we will organize a ZKRollup Research House before the official start of ETHShenzhen, inviting PSE’s Leo Lara and the Ethereum Preconf R&D team Luban to provide guidance. ZKRollup technology is crucial for Ethereum’s scalability and privacy, making it a hot topic among developers and researchers. Secondly, Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is considered an even more ambitious cryptographic technology than ZK. Currently, only about 30 teams worldwide are engaged in FHE-related research and development. We have invited Arkstream Capital, PADO, and Privesea to participate in a roundtable discussion, bringing us insights into the cutting-edge of this technology. By fostering discussions on these advanced cryptographic technologies, ETHShenzhen aims to push the boundaries of what’s possible in Web3 and contribute to the development of a more secure and decentralized internet.

Embracing Asia: A Diverse Ethereum Community

This conference will also feature panels focused on the Asia-Pacific developer community and university blockchain associations, adding even more diversity to ETHShenzhen’s community atmosphere.

Ethereum has consistently upheld the principle of decentralization within its community. Looking back, Ethereum’s seven Devcon conferences have been held in diverse locations, such as Berlin, London, Shanghai, Cancun (Mexico), Prague (Czech Republic), Osaka (Japan), and Bogotá (Colombia). The 2022 Devcon in Bogotá was considered the most successful to date. Clearly, Ethereum’s focus extends beyond developed Western countries, embracing developers from developing nations worldwide. For instance, the 2024 Ethereum Devcon will be held in Bangkok, Thailand. In recognition of Ethereum’s decentralized community ideals, ETHShenzhen has extended special invitations to the Vietnamese Ethereum community ZKP Labs, the Thai developer community ethpathai, and the Chinese developer communities such as Chainlink and DappLearning to discuss the collective building of the Southeast Asian community.

University blockchain associations represent a burgeoning force in the Ethereum developer community. Co-hosted by the Shenzhen University Blockchain Association, this event will also feature discussions with the Zhejiang University Blockchain Association and the Chengdu University of Information Technology Blockchain Association on topics related to university blockchain developer communities.

Detailed Agenda for ETHShenzhen 2024

ETHShenzhen will begin in the afternoon of August 16th and conclude on August 18th.

Hackathon

This Hackathon features 4 main tracks and 4 bounty tracks, with a prize pool exceeding $50,000!

Main Tracks

1. Innovative Dapps: This track focuses on innovative applications, including AI, social, gaming, consumer apps, and any other applications that you believe can help achieve mass adoption of Web3.

2. Open-Source Tools/Infrastructure: This track is for open-source tools or infrastructure projects, including tools, protocols, frameworks, and more.

3. xFi: This track is for financial applications/protocols, including DeFi, RWA, ReFi, and any other projects that can promote financial innovation and inclusive finance.

4. General: This general track is for any projects not covered by the above three tracks but that you believe can invigorate the Ethereum ecosystem and promote its development.

Bounty Tracks

Thanks to the sponsorship from Vara, Smartlayer, Bifrost, and BGA, the Bounty Track features 4 bounty tracks with a total cash reward of $3,500.

Prize Pool Summary

• The first, second, and third place winners of the 4 main tracks will receive cash rewards of $3,500, $2,500, and $1,500 respectively, totaling $30,000.
• The 4 bounty tracks collectively offer $3,500 in cash rewards.
• AWS will provide the winning teams with Amazon Web Services credits ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 each, valued at over $60,000.

Participation

We expect over 300 attendees for the offline conference, with more than 100 hackers participating in the hackathon. The hackathon is anticipated to receive over 30 project submissions !